You may have heard that Silk Road – the truly free online market – was taken
down today, by the FBI. In response, the price of Bitcoin crashed
24%.

Yet here I am – just a few hours later, feeling very optimistic. Why?
Because the philosophy of freedom just
showed itself to be massively stronger than statism and its “don’t think, just
obey” philosophy.

Here’s What Happened

As I was finishing my lunch, I saw a story posted on the takedown/crash. I
did a bit of checking and conversed with a friend, and then hustled over to a
place I know where crypto-anarchists hang out online.

These guys were already talking about replacing Silk Road, and doing a
better job of it.

Forget about the drugs aspect of this – I don’t care for drugs and neither
do the people I listened in on – they just want to build free markets.

Contrast that to a financial site, where I found a couple of Bitcoin haters,
a Fed trying to supercharge as much fear as he/she could, and several people
trying to buy Bitcoin at its lows, or lamenting that they were out of extra
cash to buy right away.

But here’s the interesting part: In the face of an orchestrated attack (and
you can be sure that the Feds arranged the day’s events for maximum fear –
that’s what they do), even these people, within minutes, were walking forward,
not backward.

A Better Philosophy Wins Out

Arguably, the greatest triumph of a new philosophy has to be that of the
early Christians (of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd centuries AD), they simply would not
be stopped, no matter what was thrown at them.

And why wouldn’t they turn back? Because the Roman way was ridiculous and
barbaric. Their gods were vile, vain, sometimes stupid and often cruel. Who
wants to worship that? These Christians – whatever their faults or virtues –
had found a God who loved them, who wished to help and enlighten them, who said
they were meant to be free and prosperous.

Which way would you choose?

The Romans persecuted them and sometimes killed them, but they would not be
turned around. These people chose the better philosophy, and in the end, they
won.

Today, I saw the same thing, wrapped in modern circumstances.

Freedom-minded
people are not stopping, are not abandoning their views. And why should
they? Shall we go back to the idiocy and self-contradictory life of worshiping
the state? Of pretending that robbery is somehow – magically – not
robbery when the government does it?

Our minds have been removed from the state’s intimidation and conditioning.
Shall we go back to believing lies and repeating vapid slogans for the
rest of our lives?

There are real reasons why individuals move from bondage to liberty, but
very seldom the reverse.

The Bottom Line Facts

At the end of all the discussions, all the fears, all the questions, all of
the explaining to newbs and concerned friends, stand these facts:

Our philosophy is better than theirs. We offer men and women truth,
understanding, compassion (the real kind), and strong, direct relationships.
The state
offers punishment, fear, an occasional promise of plunder, and intrusion
into every relationship in your life.

Our people are better than theirs. Not because we were born better,
but because finding and living according to truth produces better people than
blind obedience and fear of the lash.

We are not quitting. We can’t. We won’t.

Yes, there may be bruises and even blood along the way, but like the first
Christians, our people do not turn back – they continue regardless.

We’ve come out of the state’s cultivated darkness, and we are moving into
more and more light. Why would we want to go back to where we were? Even if we
tried to do it, could we really stick with it? Could our minds really fit back
into their old restraints?

This is why freedom will win, my friends: The genie is out of the bottle,
and the Internet has spread the message to the four corners of the Earth. It’s
a better message. It produces better people.

A big part of the reason we will win is, Government people want freedom, too. Take Obama, for example. He is one of the least free people in the whole world, attempting to do the job he is doing.

Let the Government people remain in Government. They will forever be entangling themselves with themselves, never to be free, always leaving the rest of us alone the more they entangle themselves among themselves.